Thoughts on BC Politics and More

It’s been a century or so since surgeon and Burnaby sanatorium owner Dr. Robert ­Telford was opining in the Vancouver Sun about the urgency of launching a facility in BC that ­provided treatment for “drug fiends.” Debate had been heating up about these ­so-called drug fiends for a while. Fueled by racism toward Chinese labourers in the ­country, opium was the new enemy. Prohibition ­politics were in play, and an appetite for treatment was ­building. Everyone in the province had an opinion on whether to manage illicit drug use as a criminal problem or a social concern. But the commonly held view was that drug users were moral degenerates from the ­“underclass” who needed saving from the evil, soulless criminals selling drugs. The world has changed hundreds of times over since then ... CLICK HERE for the full story  

Conservative Critic for Mental Health and Addictions Claire Rattée Responds to Squamish Nation State of Emergency on Drug Crisis  Conservative Critic for Mental Health and Addictions Claire Rattee, issued the following statement responding to the Squamish Nation’s declaration of a State of Emergency on the drug crisis that is devastating Indigenous communities: “Under the NDP government, Indigenous life expectancy has fallen by over seven years since 2017, largely due to the out-of-control drug crisis. Meanwhile, First Nations Health Authority data shows that Indigenous people represented 17.7% of toxic drug deaths in the first half of 2023, despite being just over 3% of population. “Tragically, Indigenous British Columbians are dying from the drug crisis at rates far higher than the rest of the population. When a Nation is forced to take emergency action to address drug trafficking, community safety, and collapsing life expectancy, it is a damning indictment of this government’s r...

The interim leader of conservative upstart political party OneBC spoke in favour of defunding non-profits not aimed at addiction recovery during a speech at the Union of BC Municipalities convention on Wednesday. Dallas Brodie said if elected, the party would “re-stigmatize” the use of illicit drugs, hearkening back to educational and advertising campaigns decades ago targeted at reducing smoking. “We will defund the addictions industry. Any NGO [non-governmental organization] that receives public money will be funded only for results, measured by recovery, not dependency. The same will go for housing,” said Brodie, who criticized non-profits as “enabling” addiction ... CLICK HERE forn the full story 

  This CBC story is one of the many reasons I decided to run for the Courtenay - Comox nomination under the BC Conservative banner. I am so tired of seeing members of the BC NDP, or bureaucrats from their government, tell us that these things are not happening, and that what they are doing is saving lives. I am sure that it is helping some people, but on the street, safe supply, has basically become currency for exchange, either for money or harder drugs. I have seen it in-person because this is where I worked (seriously, I know everyone being interviewed for this piece). They keep telling us that it is a complex problem. Well, you don’t apply a blanket solution to a complex problem, and you don’t do it without an end game plan ... and I don’t see an end game here. I only see more problems. Instead, I have watched as the BC NDP government of Premier David Eby throws tax dollars down the rabbit hole, in some belief that organizations like the Drugs User Liberation Front (DULF) we...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on her signature “Alberta model” of recovery-oriented care on Tuesday morning, announcing the creation of a new government agency to oversee the delivery of mental health and addictions services across the province. Recovery Alberta, expected to be up and running by July 1, will take over a suite of services currently delivered by Alberta Health Services (AHS). It’s the first of four new agencies the Smith government plans to spin out from the AHS in a major reorganization of the province’s health-care system, announced late last year . . . . CLICK HERE for the full story

More than 13,500 people in B.C. have died after taking unregulated drugs since 2016 ... there is no clear path to continuing care for many of the patients without a family doctor, said nurse lead Victoria Ramos. "We have such limited resources for where patients can go so we kind of hold on to them until they can be transferred,'' Ramos said of the clinic that opened in September 2016, five months after British Columbia declared an ongoing public health emergency due to rising overdose deaths ... CLICK HERE for the full story

From the moment he first raised the proposal more than 16 months ago, Premier David Eby has been slowly walking back his ideas over involuntary drug treatment. That climbdown culminated Monday with the B.C. premier finally removing the option from the table and pivoting his full attention to a seamless addictions treatment model in Vancouver — that is fully voluntary. “I don't think that it's right to say, OK, well the issue here is that we need to force more people into care, if you're not able to actually offer the care on a voluntary basis to the people who are ready to go,” Eby said, when I asked him for an update on his position ... CLICK HERE for the full story

The BC government recently posted an update on responses to the drug-poisoning crisis that claims the lives of six British Columbians a day. The update entails some of the provinces “escalated drug-poisoning response actions,” which included “new beds for addictions and recovery care,” bringing the total number of treatment and recovery beds available in the province to 3,277. However, a separate government update from June 2022, stated the number of beds was 3,272 – an increase of 5 additional beds ... CLICK HERE for the full story

More Californians with untreated mental illness and addiction issues could be detained against their will and forced into treatment under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a move to help overhaul the state’s mental health system and address its growing homelessness crisis. The new law, which reforms the state’s conservatorship system, expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to include people who are unable to provide themselves basic needs such as food and shelter due to an untreated mental illness or unhealthy drugs and alcohol use. Local governments say current state laws leave their hands tied if a person refuses to receive help. The law is designed to make it easier for authorities to provide care to people with untreated mental illness or addictions to alcohol and drugs, many of whom are homeless ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Accreditation Canada recognized Ontario hospital’s AMU, opened in 2021, as a ‘novel and leading’ practice in addiction medicine   For patients like Anne, the addiction medicine unit (AMU) at the Health Sciences North hospital in Sudbury, Ont., is a last chance at recovery. “I really think this is my way out and if I don’t take it, I’m gonna die next time,” said Anne, who had been admitted to the unit for six days when we spoke on a sunny September afternoon ... CLICK HERE for the full story

BC Liberal MLA, and Mental Health and Addictions Critic, Jane Thornthwaite (L) Yesterday Mental Health and Addictions Critic, Jane Thornthwaite, convened a roundtable at the UBCM yesterday, regarding the immediate need for government action to help municipalities around the province deal with addictions and the opioid crisis. “ I sympathize with those who raised concerns over ‘compassion fatigue’ in communities throughout B.C. The overdose crisis has not only impacted people in major cities, but all around the province, and has saddled municipalities with rising costs ”, she remarked. Needle and garbage clean-up in city parks and school playgrounds, rising safety costs, and increased crime levels are just a few of the issues affecting communities around BC.   Resources such as action teams may be useful, but they are not enough to help municipalities with crippling costs, and they do nothing to end the cycle of addiction and get people into recovery – someth...